This morning we awoke to cloudy but thankfully not rainy skies in Helsinki, Finland. When we visited Helsinki six years ago, it was pretty much a complete washout –tremendous rain hampered our ability to do and see much of anything.
Today was markedly better.
We took the shuttle bus from the port to downtown by the waterfront. From there we followed Rick Steves’s walking tour around the city, starting in Senate Square:
This square also houses the Lutheran cathedral:
From there, we rambled along the Esplanade, which is lined with some of Helsinki’s high-end shops and restaurants:
We then visited the art nouveau train station, which houses the most fabulous Burger King in the world (architecture, not food):
We then checked out some more modern Finnish design, including the famed Aalto’s Finlandia Hall. Emerson also got a chance to play in the nearby park after we ate a snack/lunch of fresh fruit that we’d purchased earlier in the day.
After taking in a few more sights, we did a bit of shopping, especially appreciating Finland’s design culture (which greatly appeals to my minimalist and geometric tendencies).
We returned to this ship by late afternoon and packed for our early disembarkation tomorrow in Sweden.